Newsletter Sign Up

Email marketing software is inherently different from other cloud-based solutions — you can’t just “set it and forget it”. In other words, you’re not done after you’ve built out the core set of features and developed a pipeline for new releases. You can have great looking templates and intuitive campaign workflows, but if users’ emails aren’t getting in the inbox it’ll all be for nothing.

ISPs are constantly changing the rules of engagement for receiving email and most take an offensive as well as defensive posture. For example, most ISPs set spam traps — email addresses maintained just for the purpose of identifying spammers. Should one of your users send to a spam trap, it could shut down deliverability for all users until you rectify with the ISP and request permission to send again.

Then there are things you might never think about like email throttling. If an ISP is getting too much traffic and you can’t slow down your email sending, they’ll trash those emails no matter how good a sending reputation you’ve established.

Sound complicated? It should yet we’ve really not even scratched the surface. Don’t forget there’s compliance with CAN-SPAM and CASL that can have significant legal consequences. For example, if you’ve got a bug that doesn’t unsubscribe customers or that sends campaigns to suppressed contacts, it will require a high level of risk propensity to manage successfully.

The real question to answer is this: Do you honestly have the human and real capital to develop and manage what could easily be a stand-alone business, or will it pull critical resources away from your core product?

Up Next: Q4 of 4 "Build or Buy - Which will have the greater impact on future revenue?"

This multi-part blog series will consider four questions you should be asking when considering building out your own email platform or connecting to an ESP (Email Service Provider). We’ll try to answer these questions both from the creative agency perspective, as well as the technology provider side.